I plucked this out of the Graith Specialist thread because I feel pretty strongly about this issue and I haven't offered any actual content on P/F in quite some time.
https://www.facebook.com/video/embed?video_id=1817757491621065
https://www.facebook.com/martin.rigg...gged&ref=notif
I'll also quote myself from the Graith thread as kind of a leader to help contextualize this a bit.
Think of it in terms of a band of tension that runs the circumference of your body around the mid-line. Most people rely on the belt alone to keep things secure and in place, so we're talking about a band of tension that is at most 1.75" in width...usually 1.5". If we carry outside the waist-band then of course we can only rely on the belt itself for support. As you start adding more and more gear you need more and more width and lateral rigidity to maintain support. The most obvious example of this is a standard police duty belt which is usually 2.25" in width and historically made of thick leather. Also the heaviest items on the police duty belt are usually the handgun itself and the portable radio and most guys wear those on the opposing hips at 3 and 9 o'clock. 3 and 9 also is where one has the thickest, most supportive muscle around the waist line.
So when we push the gear forward of the thickest, most supportive muscle...into the centerline usually between 10 and 2...we lose structural support afforded by the body. When that gear goes inside the pants now at best we can usually run a 1.75" belt. So we're losing quite a bit of width afforded by a duty belt AND the gear is not supported by muscle.
The last part of this shit-show are the pants themselves and probably the most overlooked part of the puzzle. Most dudes wear pants that don't fit. Period. They are loose, saggy around the hips, ass, and waist and will fall down if they aren't wearing a belt. Guys usually think they need "freedom of movement' or a gusset or some shit like that to carry a handgun. Like they're climbing Everest. Or....they're given poor advice like "buy your pants 2" larger in the waist than you normally do to accommodate the gear". I'm sure everyone here has probably heard or given someone that advice.
So with loose saggy pants that offer no tension around the hips, thighs, ass and abdomen....a rigid narrow belt that won't contour around the holster, mag pouches and knife sheaths....and no structural support offered between 10-2....most people I see carrying gear forward of the hip points do so....poorly. I had a kid in class recently wearing trousers that were probably 36" in the waist line and he may have been a natural 32". He was wearing an Aegis and a wide ass Eidolon and I could literally shove my entire hand down the front of his pants in the gap that was between his abdomen and the holster. And after the thumb knuckle we know it's a fist....
And he's not the only one. This is common and that's why I felt compelled to do the video. Good appendix carry holsters are a relatively new development ( early 2000's). Appendix carry itself is not new. In the early days of body worn video ('96) the ONLY way to carry a gun, a .5 watt body wire, and a Sony 8mm clamshell recorder with power sources for all that shit plus mics and the actual board cameras them selves was in a belly band inside the pants. The belly band was/is wide.
So....by wearing pants that fit snugly around the hips, thighs, ass and waist AND having a belt that is flexible enough to contour around the gear and pull it into the abdomen which is less supportive than the hips, we create a wider band of tension that makes forward carriage much more workable.
The fit of your pants is just as important as the belt and the holster.